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Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken
PainMeds writes "Apple's stepped-up and controversial rejections are helping to foster competition in the app store marketplace. According to an article by Wired, developers aren't taking AppStore rejection lying down, but are turning to the hacking community's repository system for the iPhone to launch an app store of their own. The 4-month-old Cydia store is yielding notably higher sales for a few application developers than Apple's AppStore, and is reportedly running on over 4 million Apple iPhone devices, with perhaps 350,000 connected at any one time. In this store, developers are distributing applications they've written that push the limits of Apple's normal AppStore policies, with software to add file downloads to Safari, trick applications into thinking they're on Wi-Fi (for VoIP), and enhance other types functionality. You'll also find the popular Google Voice application, which was recently rejected by Apple. Third party application development has been around since 2007, when the iPhone was originally introduced, and became so popular that O'Reilly Media published a book geared toward writing applications before an SDK was available. The Cydia store acts as both a free package repository and commercial storefront to third-party developers."
And there goes Apple's monopoly. I can't say this is a bad thing, it gives users another option, without severely damaging Apple.
Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
Normally Apple is on a totally different playing field from any competition... Not here, and it will be interesting to see how they deal with this. :) I am betting lawyers and politicians.
Those that hack or pirate always have it better. No DRM, no restrictions on what software you can install, no need for physical media and the list goes on. Being a nice customer simply doesn't pay anymore these days.
right...
Software programmers are free thinkers. They don't like being told what to do by a monolithic entity trying to hold all the cards and write all the game's rules.
If you haven't jailbroken yours yet, you haven't lived.
call me FOSS im the boss with the sauce and the source
It amazes me how often the details in these stories are completely wrong...
"You'll also find the popular Google Voice application, which was recently rejected by Apple."
You won't find the Google Voice app which was recently rejected ANYWHERE in Cydia. Do you honestly think Google, who are practically partners on the iPhone considering the Apple/Google relationship as well as the phone coming with Google Maps and Youtube baked in, would turn to releasing software in Cydia?
What you WILL find in Cydia is the GV Mobile app which was approved and added to the App Store and later pulled. This IS NOT the Google Voice app that was recently rejected, it's a completely different app that was written by a 3rd party.
I don't think it's too much to ask for a technology site to not get huge details wrong in their writeups. :-/
That the company trumpeting how 1984 wouldn't be like 1984 was the company to most make it like 1984?
Although you can't really blame Apple for denying Google Voice and similar apps
You can't really blame Comcast for denying access to hulu.com or tnt.com or scifi.com.....
Just something to think about - the motives for these denials are clear.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I like the idea of free choice when it comes to what I run on my phone. And I'm in serious need of adblock on the phone (c'mon apple, the 3G pipe is small, I don't want to waste time downloading that crap). But the thing that keeps me from jailbraking my phone is:
1) primarily it's a phone and it's got to be reliable. I'm not going to do anything to reduce the already marginal reliability of the cell network.
2) Once jailbroken it's a constant game of cat and mouse when it comes to updates. I don't want to have to research every system patch and update to see when it's ok to use it and how. This goes back to point 1, it's an appliance for me, with extra functionality I can strap on. It's not a cutting edge geeky plaything because that would hose up the core functionality that I need (the phone part)
So in this regard, I look at android and think that the grass is a bit greener over there. But there's a lot of reasons to stay with the iPhone if you aren't butthurt over someone else telling you what you can do with the shiny.
Sheldon
"Apple - Think Less"
On the other hand if you peruse an actual list of 'real' Apple slogans, some of them work without any changes.
"Apple - What kind of man owns his own computer?"
Apple, AT&T and other cell phone companies have yet to realize that imposing unreasonable restrictions on your own customers -- on a physical object your customers *bought* -- defies common sense.
People who own a physical piece of equipment should be able to use their equipment in any way that doesn't break the law or hurt others.
Some protections of the manufacturer are understandable, but they must be within reason. The more unreasonable the restrictions, the less legitimate they seem in the eyes of customers. The less legitimate they seem, the less guilt people feel for breaking the restrictions. The less guilty people feel, the more the "undesired" actions become mainstream (hence the jailbroken iPhone App Store). Plus, if they're extremely unreasonable, the FCC might just step in and void them.
In short, when dealing with consumers, being draconian as a company (a.) makes your product less valuable and (b.) reduces or eliminates goodwill customers have towards you. Apple needs to realize that you simply can't force people to do exactly what you want.
Duh.
The Institute of Incomplete Research has determined that 9 of out 10
You can't really blame Comcast for denying access to hulu.com or tnt.com or scifi.com.....
Don't you mean Siffy? Err, SyFy?
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
The Google Voice app is NOT available on Cydia. GV Mobile (not a Google product) is available, but it doesn't integrate well with the iPhone's contact list. GV mobile is a far cry from any native app that Google would have released for the iPhone.
Facts have a liberal bias.
Whoops accidently modded the wrong thing.
My addiction: Arguing with idiots. AKA Slashdot!
http://thebigboss.org/why-jailbreak-iphone/
The apps interfaces are so amazing compared to the boring vanilla apps. check qtwitter or sbsettings for examples.
Apple did open their platform to clones. It very nearly killed them completely. Apple are a hardware company.
Apple is making an *enormous* amount of money with their hardware and software in its current configuration, and I believe is very high up the charts on total number of machines shipped. They are very clearly not dying. In fact, their marketshare in terms of computers and phones, and portable music players is going up, year on year.
A hackable iPod/iPhone is a niche market. The slashdot audience really isn't the primary target audience. If you want a hackable smartphone, there's Android. If you just want a flashy smartphone with the internet, street cred, a camera, games, and tons of apps of varying usefulness (from things that make your phone into a flashlight and make silly noises, right up to high quality games, task manager apps and sat nav) then the iPhone is for you.
Not that I'm saying the Android lacks street cred, but the iPhone really made smartphones cool. Blackberrys were around, and were pretty popular, but when the iPhone came out - boom. And now we have a huge slew of competitors who are releasing phones that look just like an iPhone. Funny that!
The platform is very transparent up front - ie, you know it is locked to AT&T, you know the app system is tightly controlled by Apple, you know the hardware is tightly controlled. None of this is hidden. If you want a hackable phone, it is yelling at you right out that it's not the purchase for you.
Unfortunately, that is true. For a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch can be trivially enabled to pirate App Store (the official Apple one) apps. Jailbreaking won't get you the ability to install pirated apps, but it's trivial to do it (basically you enable a new repository, which involves maybe 5 or 6 taps and a bit of typing, then another 4 taps or so to install the required tool).
The only interesting thing is, considering how easy it is to pirate real App Store apps, how long until Cydia gets locked down to prevent people from doing the same to its paid apps? RIght now it isn't much of a problem because the vast majority of Cydia apps are free...
It sounds like your beef is with the phone companies - and rightly so.
I think Apple would love to sell you an iPhone that works on any carrier. They would make more money - there is very clearly a market for people who want one but don't want AT&T, just as there is in the UK for people who don;t want to use O2. Unfortunately, they just can't do that right now and are obligated to try to keep you from unlocking it to change networks (even though they know its fruitess since jailbreaking is trivial, they are contractually obliged to try to stop you).
The same process happened with the iTunes store. They didn't want to sell DRM'ed music tracks - customers don't like it, but it was the only way they could do so at first. Now it has changed somewhat and DRM-free music is available for sale, but it's still not Apple's content, so they are selling it based on an agreement with the actual owners.
I'm sure that if the exclusive deal is not renewed with AT&T (or another carrier makes a better offer) that the locking will change. It is an artificial barrier that exists solely to further the business model of AT&T - it's not Apple's decision. The VOIP and tethering is AT&T again (didn;t you hear the very thinly veiled digs at AT&T during the WWDC keynote - it is clear that Apple are not happy with them and don;t mind publicly hinting at it with huge comedy wink-winks).
The consumer pressure is good though - it;s the only serious way to get companies to change things that are not necessarily in their obvious interest (like DRM on music, or tethering, or the dropping of firewire from the cheapest Macbook). Apple reverted that change in response to customer complaints - I expect they are trying to negotiate with AT&T about some of the nasty restrictions on the iPhone.
...how hard is a jailbroken device to maintain over time? I understand the initial process is fairly simple, but with most hacks maintenance and keeping it hacked can be difficult (witness hackintoshes when OS updates come out, Tivos when the kernel is updated, etc). Can anyone comment on how hard it would be for an "average user" to not only set this up, but keep it running over time?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
Very insightful, and I'd Mod you to +6 if I could. However, I make the case that Amazon.com is currently duking it out with Apple over the top position in the 1984 mentality race of late. Then again, if Amazon deleted 1984 off of the Kindle reader software on your iPhone then it all comes together and I can see the Big Picture now.
Damn... and I thought we'd always been at war with Amazon.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Jobs is worth millions, if not Billions. You post on slashdot. Who made the mistakes here?